From MiG-17 to MiG-21

   Upon completion of the whole training in June 1960, whereas 32 new jet pilots (17 fighter- and 15 bomber pilots) had been the output of the first batch, we returned to Indonesia and received some additional in-country training for a period of 12 months. Fighter pilots had to pass through the MiG-17F standardization/transition training, while bomber pilots got additional training in the Ilyushin Il-28 bomber. Both were conducted at the former Kemayoran International Airport in the capital city of Jakarta. (See List of  Czech Flying College Graduates, 1960)

   I graduated as a new Air Force officer on July 15, 1961 and was then first assigned to the 11th Jet Fighter Squadron as a fighter pilot  flying the Mig-17 F/PF "Fresco" fighters. The squadron's home base at Iswahyudi, a newly modern-equipped airbase near Madiun, East Java, became the home base for the new MiG-21F "Fishbed" squadron and the Tu-16B/KS "Badger" squadrons by early 1962. (See List of  New Indonesian Air Force Officers/Pilots, 1961)

The Indonesian Air Force  MiG-21F aircraft

   On December 19, 1961 the so-called "Three Commands of the People", known as 'Trikora', was issued by President Sukarno in order to use force against the Dutch regarding the seemingly endless West Irian (Papua) dispute.    Meanwhile, in February 1962 the government sent me again abroad for training with a more advanced combat aircraft, i.e. the famous Mach-2 supersonic Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21F "Fishbed".

   This time, however, directly to the heart of the Soviet Union and the place was Lugovoy air station, near Dzambul, a town located somewhere within the region of the former Kazakhstan Socialistic Soviet Republic.

(Note approximate location of Lugovoy Air Station)